Judge approves re-enactment of Parkland school shooting for Scot Peterson civil trial
FORT LAUDERDALE - A judge has approved a motion for the re-enactment of the Parkland massacre inside the 12-hundred building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The motion was part of a civil lawsuit brought against former school resource officer Scot Peterson.
The reenactment, which will be recorded, will parallel the movements of the shooter inside the 1200 building back in 2018. The purpose, according to the lawsuit, would be to prove that Peterson heard more than 70 gunshots and failed to act during the Valentine's Day shooting.
The judge wants the re-enactment to happen before the start of the school year.
Peterson was recently acquitted in a criminal trial where he faced child neglect charges. Peterson has claimed on that day, he didn't know where the gunfire was coming from.
However, the parents of four of the victims say there is evidence he knew where they were coming from and the best way they feel to prove that is to demonstrate what happened.
The motion said the simulation will include the same types of weapons the killer used, using blanks instead of real ammunition. Attorneys, law enforcement, and experts will take part in it.
Families of the victims and survivors have already settled with the Broward school district but still have pending civil cases, including against the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Now that the criminal trials related to the shooting have ended, the 1200 building is set to be handed back to the school district to be demolished. But not before loved ones are able to tour the hallways to see firsthand what it looks like five years after a gunman killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. The walls remain blood-stained, shattered glass litters the floors, and the building virtually untouched since that day.